Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Please share widely, let's pack the theater and support an important organization.

TUESDAY, APRIL 4TH AT 7PM!

A Fundraiser For Common Cause Oregon

all seats only $12 ~ Tickets available now at our box office during regular business hours or online at boxofficetickets.com!

On April 4th, numerous participating theaters nationwide will screen the film 1984, based on the 1949 novel by George Orwell. The story centers around Winston Smith, a member of the Outer Party. Winston works in the Records Department in the Ministry of Truth; his job is to rewrite and distort history. As a way to rebel and escape Big Brother's tyranny, at least in his own mind, he begins a diary, which is an act punishable by death. The group of movie theaters chose April 4 to screen this film because that is the date in which Winston starts writing on his diary.

A joint statement from theaters reads, "The endeavor encourages theaters to take a stand for our most basic values: freedom of speech, respect for our fellow human beings, and the simple truth that there are no such things as 'alternative facts.' By doing what we do best - showing a movie - the goal is that cinemas can initiate a much-needed community conversation at a time when the existence of facts, and basic human rights are under attack. Through nationwide participation and strength in numbers, these screenings are intended to galvanize people at the crossroads of cinema and community, and bring us together to foster communication and resistance against current efforts to undermine the most basic tenets of our society."

From the long-denied connection between smoking and lung cancer to the latest target - the science behind climate change - learn more about how a few industry-funded researchers delegitimize scientific consensus by using the trappings of science to mislead policy makers and the public.

Sunday, March 5, 2017

The Oregon Legislature is all ready to join the National Popular Vote (NPV) compact, an agreement between the states that will retain the Electoral College but fix the dangerous design defect that produced a so-called president who lost by millions of votes.

All ready except for one Senator: Salem's Peter Courtney, Senate President. He's fine with having Oregonian's wishes ignored and having a system that lets reactionary billionaires start out with a head-start towards installing their preferred candidate for the presidency every four years.

The Electoral College was always 100% about slavery and giving certain people -- white, rural people -- more power than anyone else in deciding who should be president.

The entire reason the Electoral College was created was to protect the slave states from an abolitionist president, while allowing them to disenfranchise most of their residents; further, they got to count enslaved people as 3/5ths of a person in the census, which determines the seats for the state in the House of Representatives in Congress.

You can no more separate the Electoral College from its roots in preserving the disproportionate power of white rural votes than you can separate the purr from a cat.

The whole point of using this bizarre anachronism is, as it was before the Civil War, to disadvantage the people more urban regions (the norther, free states) while unfairly advantaging voters in rural states (the South). It's the most un-American idea in the Constitution, in that it is entirely about making "one person, one vote" into pure fiction, as the Electoral Collect means that the weight of your vote for president -- the only national elected office -- depends entirely on whether you are in a more or less populous state. If you are a rural voter in an empty state, your vote counts many times more than it would if you were in a high population state.

The Electoral College is now not just stupid, it's a pathological and dangerous threat to the American Republic in the age of nuclear weapons. That's because its terrible defect -- the consequence of electing a popular vote loser -- is now dormant no more; twice since 2000, the popular vote winner was not elected and the electoral vote loser was.

Worse, the arguments in favor of the Electoral College have now been clearly shown to be absurd.

The Electoral College doesn't protect against the unqualified populist, it is what allowed the unqualified populist to use over-weighted rural votes to win the office despite having millions more Americans opposed to his election than in favor of it.

The scholarly rationalization ("the substitution of a good reason for the real reason") was always that the Founding Fathers feared a demagogue and a candidate for president who would whip up popular sentiment against the rich and powerful and convince the people to give him power, which he would then use to benefit himself and his friends instead of governing in the national interest. This is precisely what has happened now, in this most dangerous time.

The only reason Oregon hasn't joined the NPV compact is the President of the Oregon Senate, Peter Courtney, Salem's state senator. Come to Louck's Auditorium next Sunday at 3:30 and hear more about NPV and what you can do to help get Oregon into the right column of YES states.

National Popular Vote: What is it? Why is it needed?

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Join John Koza, founder of the National Popular Vote, and
local advocates to learn more about the National Popular Vote Interstate
Compact and how we can pass it in Oregon. The NPVIC would ensure that
the winner of the popular vote wins the presidency.

NPVIC would not
abolish the Electoral College and would only go into effect once states
representing at least 270 Electoral College votes have enacted the
compact.

Currently, 10 states representing 165 Electoral College votes
have entered the NPVIC.

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

State winner-take-all laws are the reason why a candidate can win the Presidency without winning the national popular vote. Under these state laws, all of a state's electoral votes are awarded to the candidate receiving the most popular votes in each separate state. Given that the average margin in the national popular vote has been only 5% since 1988, undemocratic outcomes will continue to occur if the system for electing the President is not reformed.

Existing state winner-take-all laws create another problem in every election. Presidential candidates only campaign in a handful of closely divided "battleground" states. Voters in other states (such as Oregon) get ignored because presidential candidates do not campaign in states where they are hopelessly behind or safely ahead. Of the 399 campaign events in the 2016 general-election campaign:

Over half of the events (57%) were held in just four states (Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Ohio).

Virtually all of the events (94%) were in just 12 states (containing only 30% of the country's population). Details.

As presidential candidate Scott Walker (R) accurately stated in 2015,

"The nation as a whole is not going to elect the next president. Twelve states are."Video

Fortunately, the U.S. Constitution specifically allows state legislatures to change the method of awarding their electoral votes without amending the U.S. Constitution. Article II says:

"Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors...."

Existing state winner-take-all laws may be changed in the same way they were originally enacted -- namely by passing a different state law in the state legislature.

Under the National Popular Vote bill, the winner will be the candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC. The bill would take effect when enacted by states with a majority of the electoral votes -- 270 of 538. All of the presidential electors from the enacting states will be supporters of the presidential candidate receiving the most popular votes in all 50 states and DC. This guarantees the national popular vote winner with an Electoral College majority.

A national popular vote for President is an achievable political goal that can be in place in time for the 2020 election. The bill has already been enacted into law in 11 states possessing 165 electoral votes, including four small jurisdictions (Rhode Island, Vermont, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia), three medium-sized states (Maryland, Massachusetts, and Washington), and four large states (New Jersey, Illinois, New York, and California). It will take effect when enacted by additional states having 105 electoral votes. The bill has passed at least one chamber in 12 additional states with 96 electoral votes (AR, AZ, CO, CT, DE, ME, MI, NC, NM, NV, OK, OR) and was approved by unanimous bipartisan committee votes in 2016 in two other states with 26 electoral votes (MO and GA). A total of 2,955 state legislators have endorsed it. The National Popular Vote bill passed the Oregon House of Representatives in 2009, 2013, and 2015, but has not previously received a hearing in the Oregon Senate.

Recently, the National Popular Vote bill received bipartisan support in

40-16 vote in the Republican-controlled Arizona House

28-18 vote in the Republican-controlled Oklahoma Senate

57-4 vote in the Republican-controlled New York Senate

37-21 vote in the Democratic-controlled Oregon House

The National Popular Vote bill will make every vote equal throughout the United States. It would ensure that every voter, in every state, will be politically relevant in every presidential election.

LOVESalem

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WORD

Communities exist for the health and enjoyment of those who live in them,

not for the convenience of those who drive through them, fly over them, or exploit their real estate for profit.

-- Ted Roszak, "Where the Wasteland Ends"

"Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us." (Henrik Tikkanen)

"Forget the damned motor car and build the cities for lovers and friends." (Lewis Mumford)Let's live on the planet as if we intend to stay

If you are thinking a year ahead, plant seeds. If you are thinking 10 years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate the people.Heroes are not giant statues framed against a red sky. They are people who say: This is my community, and it’s my responsibility to make it better. (Gov. Tom McCall)

Why This Blog?

Jan 19, 2008: LOVESalem reaches the web, bringing a vitally needed message to Oregon's capital city: We must Oregon-ize to put the needs of people before the needs of cars. This requires that we live our environmental values -- that we LOVE (Live Our Values Environmentally) Salem -- by working to stop the Sprawl Machine.

The Sprawl Machine is a ravenous beast that feeds on green space, close-in neighborhoods, and property taxes and that excretes monstrous, ugly road projects that pollute the air, increase mortality and morbidity, promote climate change, weaken families and neighborhoods, and help weaken the social fabric and civic participation.

The Sprawl Machine works by constantly luring its prey with promises that the problems created by cars can be addressed by doing more of the same -- building more lanes, more bridges, consuming ever more money. In other words, the Sprawl Machine promises that we can keep doing the same thing over and over, while expecting a different result this time.

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